Poll: Do Crimson Desert's PS5 Patches Put Other Devs to Shame, or Is the Game Simply Unfinished?

Just to note, we plan on re-reviewing Crimson Desert fairly soon. It's actually mad how much the game has been improved in such a short space of time.

We'll see what the next couple of major updates bring and work from there.

Playing the hell out of it. 85+hrs in and have only done about half of the main story quests.

Love it.

If you're a fan of Dragons Dogma you owe it to yourself to check this one out.

The game wasn’t unfinished at launch. It was perfectly playable and I had very little bugs. What they are doing now is listening to the community and changing things around player feedback.

If they delayed the game it would have still released in a similar state to what was actually released at launch.

Listening to player feedback is what is making this game better and I’m all for it.

Absolutely unfinished. These are the kind of patches that make it seem like the game wasn't beta tested at all. I'm glad Pearl Abyss is so responsive to feedback, but the don't deserve credit for releasing an incomplete game for money just to fix it after it made them money.

Bethesda needs to take notes.

Other devs ship a game and all their staff then seem to have left for a holiday! Pearl Abyss launched Crimson Desert and seemingly have a full roster working on meaty patches with game improvements.

Compare with the recent launch of Starfield, there are widespread reports of crashes, Bethesda knows the cause, but it still hasn’t fixed it.

What Pearl Abyss is doing right is treating post-launch support as important to support people who’ve already paid, post launch isn’t just an afterthought!

I have a friend that is playing since release, he told me that the game had its bugs but it was complete at lunch. Maybe questionable choices like controls, but not really an early access like a vocal minority is trying to push.
I think I will get it this weekend, steam reviews are picturing a game I will for sure like and with every patch it is getting better and better.

I would say that most publishers deploy games that are "ready enough". A trend I would like to see go away. However, this game doesn't seem so incomplete that they need an extra month before reviewers can review the game (cough cough Marathon)

Having been one of the poor sods that bought Cyberpunk 2077 at launch, and got to BG3 Act 3 before their patches did, I'm not sure I'd call this game unfinished. But it wasn't exactly primed and ready to go too.

It's very playable on a base PS5, it's very fun, but there's some real annoying issues (like fiddly controls) that hold it back.

I doubt they intended to release it in a worse state, people have held off buying it because of its issues, but I also think praising a company releasing a game a bit too soon before it's fully ready should be commended. But I'm glad to see updates rolling out, and I'm looking forward to jumping back in

Clearly the game was finished at launch. The reviews came out, the bugs weren't the problem. It was just a love it or hate type game.

So reality is, they are going above and beyond.

I mean look at the state of minds eye or even cyberpunk, or even bethesda games.

This company are putting all of them to shame.

A crazy big world, many mechanics and it ran even at launch with very little bugs.

Even Cyberpunk, it maybe, beloved by many but reality is the world is pretty bog standard in terms of NPCs and what you can actually interact with.

This game really does feel like its lived in.

They are doing an absolute fabulous job of truly finishing their vision unlike many

I recently finished my playthrough at a little over 90 hours. I started playing a few minutes after launch.

I never felt the game was unfinished or unplayable. It was certainly....imperfect but, for me, it was a good game from the start.

What has been added in addition to minor bug fixes is lots of QoL improvements. Many of those make the game better or more enjoyable but, IMO, they weren't essential.

For me, this is case of the developer providing excellent support.

I want to play, but at this point it sounds like I'd be crazy to get it now. Seems like a no-brainer to wait until the patches fall off and the game goes on sale.

I mean, this game looks pretty cool. It does, but how can anyone argue the facts? The post launch updates tell a tale.

The thing that bothers me more than anything is that once you point out the problems, someone sees it as an attack and tries to tell you why you are just being difficult. Two things can be true, the game can be janky and even unfinished and still be good/cool.

Why are there so many who jump at the slightest criticism?

It was finished. All the patches is improvement from feedback. We live in an era where that's possible, thankfully.

People who praises the old days because we got complete games are wrong. Games were full of bugs/glitches, but you couldn't see it as easily as today and if a game was bad and players hated something, it could never be improved like it was today or made better. You were stuck with garbage.

I wouldn't say unfinished, many of its core systems were (many still are) poorly implemented. It's good to see them being responsive to the community but they're only able to make such differences because of their own poor design choices.

Having played at launch and with the improvements, I'd probably still just give it the same score today, somewhere between a 7 and an 8. As whilst they are nice improvements, none of them are game changing, its story and characters are still rubbish and many quests are downright boring, it's menu's are still convoluted. But on the flip side, the world is vast, there's plenty to do, it's engaging to explore and combat can be really fun

Maybe they were running out of money and had to release it to get some income to keep working on it? And because it sold well on release they can now do all the things they didnt have a budjet for if they postponed the release? Either way, I'll buy the ultimate edition on next gen, maybe.

There needs to be a “both” option for the poll. Yes, it was not quite ready for launch and should have been held back a little longer. Yes, it’s good that the devs are doggedly working on it.

People hold this game to different standards. Plenty of games before it that launched with continuous updates with much worse gameplay and I’m not even talking about cyberpunk. Even starfield which was rated higher by journalists at launch. Despite that game not even being optimized. Give this dev a break! They launched at current generation RPG which to me feels next generation just like when the Witcher 3 came out.
The devs are being humble and listening to community feedback to make the game better. As internally what they had before they thought was fine. And their paying customers whom are their base didn’t like some gameplay elements.

It's nice to be excited for a new game, to want it day one, but, I'm comfortably in the camp of those who don't mind waiting for large complex games to get patched up, especially seeing as patch work post release has become a common approach.

I don't need to moan. I can just wait several months, get on with life, and dive in when it's fully patched and improved upon. Simple really.

@Enuo what’s incomplete about it? The game runs at launch better than previous ambitious RPGs at launch. Quality of life improvements listening to real community feedback of paying customers doesn’t mean a game is incomplete. Artists oftentimes have a vision and go with it. We are lucky this dev is humble enough to receive feedback. As recently we have seen many developers especially in the west be nasty if fans don’t like something.

The Witcher 3, cyberpunk 2077 did the exact same thing. Why is this different?

Going to wait on it - hopefully they'll add the character creator at some point given that someone has released a PC mod that already does it!

Devs should not be put on a pedestal for releasing an unfinished broken game.

What sort of message does that send out.

No wonder the industry is in the gutter

I feel like it's both. It clearly is a finished game given how many people are actually playing it, lol. But it does need love. And it's getting it. So if that bothers you, wait for it to be "finished" — whatever that means to you. I think a lot of people who are angry really want to join everyone else but because of some self imposed moral stance about waiting until it's all buttoned up, they really are just jealous they aren't playing it right now.

This game was fine at release. Much of the patches were the result of the devs listening to the qol recommendations of the community and implementing them.

Above and beyond is an understatement.
Bethesda broke their own game (vats system), with a patch to one of their fallout re release cash grabs... It took them 18 months to fix it. Capcom still hasn't addressed issues in monster hunter and dragons Dogma 2. The list goes on.

The modern day bar is low and there are a myriad of games that release technically terrible and take months and months to even attempt to address from huge devs, yet it gets completely glossed over and a non factor in reviews....

Crimson Desert released with some design shortcomings that only took a few days of those being made widely aware for them to address them, over and over again. With a half a dozen patches and hot fixes in just a matter of weeks. To call this unfinished or broken is absurd, and proves the online bandwagon has dramatic influence over you. Not to mention the fact you voted that without even playing it...

This game was slandered because it breaks norms in its genre and the machine hates that much like expedition 33 and bg3. Sadly many will pass on this gem because of that online campaign. Alongside reviewers in the mainstream who didn't have the time to engage most of the game because of priority conflicts.

It's hands down one of the best open world sandboxes I've experienced in over 20 years of gaming.

Beta tester is supposed to be a payed job. But now you have to pay to be a beta tester.

@DartLOD and they were dunked on for it. Deservingly so.

Sounds like a bunch of things that could have been cleaned up during the QA process and play testing before release. They sold enough copies pre-launch, so I guess it didn't hurt their product releasing it in the state it was in.

“Now obviously, Starfield is an extreme example; not every new release hits PS5 in a barely functional form.”

This is scathing, 100% accurate, and I’m grateful no punches were pulled.

While I can see the unfinished game argument, in most instances it take MONTHS or longer to improve. PA have shown that feedback can and should be implemented quickly. Puts Ubisoft Capcom(MH Wilds) and CD Project Red to shame for how long they took.

EDIT: The Oblivion Remaster STILL hasn't been properly fixed and it's been about a year since that launched!

Its worth noting a lot of the updates have just been fixings and adding QoL features that should have been there from the start. Its great they're acting so fast but this narrative of them putting western devs to shame falls apart when you remember most of the post release support is stuff already in day 1 releases of most "western" games. Like "hide helmet" is a bog standard feature that somehow took weeks to be added.

Its a great game i love it easily a GOTY contender for me and its great the devs listen to feedback and act on it fast but let's not glaze them for simply "finishing" the game post release even if a lot of it is based around player feedback.

@themightyant There's no tearing with V-Sync on provided you don't have it on with VRR as well. I've had zero tearing and trust i would notice it as i hate it to the point it hurts my eyes. Performance is caused by CPU issues there's nothing the devs can do about that, you can't do a battle as large and dynamic as the Chapter 6 battle and expect 60fps on CPU's this weak. GTA VI will no doubt have the same issues.

Played the hell out of it and Starfield since both launches - both truly excellent games, I’m having an absolute blast on the Pro and these two will sort me out for months to come!

@KundaliniRising333 E33 and BG3 were hated by the mainstream? What since when?

It's not really uncommon for a game to release fixes and gameplay enhancements/QoL stuff post-release, it's just the rate at which they're doing it is unseen in the modern gaming space.

@DennisReynolds they were slandered in the sense that they were cited as anaomlies and warned zombies to not expect such scope and quality as a new norm for their genres.

Re-review? Isn't that against the law 😄. Dunno if it's a good or bad thing. If other sites follow, games are going to be released unfinished and ask for re-reviews.

@Dalamar cdprojektred is wildly regarded as one of the best developers in the world. Them getting “dunked” on seems to be a smart business strategy then.

@ShogunRok Would appreciate you at least acknowledging that PS got the review horribly wrong, it really wasn't that bad when it was released, at worst a bit clunky. This is even more so after the questionable grace that Marathon and Starfield were given post-release.

I don’t think the two are mutually exclusive of one another.

@DennisReynolds These so-called 'bog-standard' features like hide helmet/shield, that were included soon after release, never had any significant impact on the game's playability or can be claimed to render the game 'unfinished', the framing that is being used to rationalise the silly review.

@KundaliniRising333 Both games had the highest MC scores of their years, got universal acclaim and won endless GOTY awards. I love CD but E33 and BG3 it is not. CD is a jack of all trades game but master of nothing, i love it for that but let's not pretend its taking open world gaming to new levels because it hasn't.

@Silenos The point is many of the things they have been adding is stuff that should have been there from the start. Didn't even have a storage chest on release.

I found the controls atrocious and unintuitive, which was enough to deter me from further playing the game, I’ll wait before I play this game again.

@DennisReynolds i like how you're being honest about the game, after so many hours with it I reckon. This is why I normally regard reviews because a verdict is giving after the game's completion or several hours after, not those extra excited 5hr playtime brand new game spur of the moment 10/10 User review scores. We'll see how people actually feel about this game months later.

Game was a big beautiful mess at launch and the developers have been cleaning up that mess at an impressive rate. This is commendable. The more relevant issues for me are design related, which are a different kettle of fish.

@DartLOD I can only speak for myself, but I don't regard them as even good developers.

Honestly this game doesnt need a story, it feels like more of a slice of life where events just move forward at a steady pace.

@SoulofBashar Maybe a delay' wasn't an Option for them at the time. Sometimes you need to release "as is" just to get some "return income" flowing back in and sort' it later. Good on them for the frequent updates.

I encountered the map crashing the game bug early on, tried to persevere without opening map until I would forget. Now I'm just waiting for them to iron out all the kinks. I do find it strange how many QoL issues weren't picked up in its development but do feel they are getting overly praised for fixing what shouldn't have been broken on release

@SoulofBashar Most of the Updates are QoL which only comes from user feedback.

@Dalamar You’re correct in that we are only speaking for ourselves. Unfortunately, for you, you’re in the tiniest of minorities in this one.

I bounced off Crimson Desert quite hard and my issue isn't one they can patch easily.

The game narrative focus is utter nonsense which means I end up doing stuff just because it's there to do not because I have any real purpose beyond that.

In games like Kingdom Come Deliverance (both of them) and other games of similar scope I know why I am doing the things I do. I don't have that at all in Crimson Desert.

I know a lot of this is a me issue but it's not totally. I mean even the devs and voice actors are on record saying the narrative is rushed and often makes no sense.

To release big patches they way they have so quickly tells me they knew what was wrong when the game shipped, had the fixes ready to go and waited for gamer feedback to decide which patches to release and when.

I used to preorder often, now when I just think people are paying a premium to be glorified beta testers.

Currently I only feel like trusting Capcom and Sony first party to give day one games that are not a buggy mess.

I said before release, over and over, that the game would have issues at launch. It is a giant, systems-driven, open world. Like...ya' been paying attention, folks?

@KundaliniRising333 Well said, this is by far the best, most rational well-articulated comment here amongst all so much false equivalence if not outright bias.

Yes, it released in an unfinished state. You see, the whole game was not on the disc. I’d call that unfinished.

@Dalamar do you buy Atlus games at launch? No shade, just wondering if you draw a distinction.

54% of the people haven't played it, yet the amount of votes for how much Pearl Abyss has done is almost the same. Social media "gamers" strike again.

The game launched unfinished. The features they want to add by June should have been on day 1. They should have delayed until June.

Core features like difficulty setting and a more thought-out progression system for the other 2 characters missing are a clear indication of that.

The game was functional at launch, but is that really an acceptable barometer for a near full-price AAA game?

It's good they are getting these big patches out quickly, but they wouldn't have needed to do them if the game were "finished".

It was a fully functional game when it released. It wasn't broken. It wasn't unfinished.

It's just better now.

Are we actually applauding a company that release an unfinished game and now is trying to fix it 😒 this guy's should be ashamed too

i put 50 hours in and made it to chapter 7 in crimson desert, game is unfinished. it’s early access unfinished, cyberpunk was a buggy mess but 99% of the game was in place. crimson desert feels like i paid to be a tester for a game that’s going to release in 6 months.

I think it's both. A part is/was unfinished amd then there are additional quality of life updates baked in. I'm glad I held of and am waiting for a sale.

@TheArt Don't get me wrong i love the game and i can easily see it being my GOTY but yeah i'm not blind to its many many faults. I love how fast the devs work and i love they are listening to feedback and acting on it but at the same time its hard to glaze them for giving us features that really should have been there from the start. Like people love to s**t on Bethesda and yes they deserve it most of the time but most of the stuff CD has added in updates that people are praising the devs for was in Skyrim on day 1 on PS3 🤷‍♂️

I think they should be praised for the speed they have done updates. Saying it was released too early is right but most games now are released too early sadly. So instead of moaning about it being too early let’s say well done to the devs for acting way faster than we are used to

@LikelySatan yes, there is a clear distinction. Distinction between releasing an updated version of the game with dozens of hours of new content and releasing an unfinished game without testing it.

@Dalamar I see it as Atlus purposefully releasing an unfinished game to screw people down the road. I would sooner buy Pearl Abyss's next game than Atlus's, especially since PA are not charging for the new stuff. I still buy Atlus releases, I just give them a year or two.

@darylb24 good thing you have the finished version of Persona 5 in your pfp, lol. Would've seemed like hypocrisy otherwise!

The game looks really good and a lot of good patches have arrived. That said, I’ll be waiting for a steep discount and more updates. Too many games to play lol.

100% will play this. But I never worry or rush to play games at launch. More than happy to wait 18 months for sale or PS Plus and best bug-free and/or enhanced experience

Good on PA for taking on board user experience which seems beyond bugs

Let’s be realistic here.

Unfinished? Certainly not, fully playable.

Unfinished is Starfield, Cyberpunk and mindseye - or any game that Sony (or any other platform holder) refunds you on. That’s unfinished and some of those are by major devs.

Should some of the things have been in the game day 1? Could some of it have been better? - absolutely, hence why it was mid 80’s and not mid 90’s in reviews.

This is the devs first major game, how many devs succeed like they have? Very few. But hundreds do far worse.

Should the devs be praised for listening to feedback and push out updates fast? Of course they should, it should be industry standard to do fast updates should your game not release perfect. It shouldn’t be wait 6weeks or 3 months or never.

@Kiefer-Sutherland
People tend to forget that Pearl Abyss is an MMO studio and is already experienced with providing quick fixes and constant updates.

@Titntin I don't know what's going on with PS at the moment but Jesus it's getting a tad tiresome. If it wasn't for people like yourself and @Sanquine,@Kidfunkadelic83 and the other guys I've met here and now play online with regularly I'd have quit this three ring circus years ago. PS need to do better and get back to when they were actually decent circa 2019.

First in order to criticize a game you have to be playing it. Second you have to play it more than 2 to 3 hours. I have over 100 hours so far have been gaming for 40 years and this is one of my top 3 games played. Developers have responded in a positive way to gamers much better than 90 percent who don't care about the consumer. I hope there's a second one it would be phenomenal.

It was a great game to start, despite various issues. It's the fact Pearl Abyss have been so attentive since release that makes Crimson Desert an even greater game. In a world where most developers end up dropping support way too soon this is refreshing.

I understand the "unfinished game" mindset but to me it doesn't matter if what I'm getting is a fun experience.

@Frmknst yes it's called CRIMSON DESERT...

@PsBoxSwitchOwner black desert was their first major release.

@Frmknst genuinely interested to know what all these bugs you saw in 2 hours were. I've been playing since day one, 130 hours in and ive seen 2 bugs, total. It's running practically flawlessly

If your not playing the game how can you answer the first question. Another poll at push square thats useless. Advertisers pay on interactive users, this is how they get users active. Same with IGN they gave poor reviews because it will create active engagement in the comments, this increases revenue. They are paid to play, not gamers. This game will be 80 dollars for a long long time.

Finished or not, the game is crazy good.

Have any of the patches improved performance on base PS5?

It is absolutely unfinished, it's taking players over 100hrs to discover just how much is either missing or broken due to how Pearl Abyss emulated the MMO progression cycle.

"It takes over 160 hours to unlock X" only to find out X was cut from the game last minute, like ridable wild wyverns.

That being said, what is there is fun. I have been sinking most of my free time into the game.

@ShogunRok Ah yes pay full price and and it gets fixed later most of the time. I think we need another way of releasing games. This was called early access in the past where you bought the game at a decreased price for playtesting the game.

@Andy22385 It is never smart to compare a game to the worst way in the industry.

@VenomUK No the wrong message in my opinion the industry need to bring back early access in the way its intended. Playtest the games at a reduced pricepoint and release when finished.

If this is "unfinished", I don't know what to say about Cyberbug 2077 at launch or recent stuff like MWH, Oblivion R, and BL 4, etc..

In my opinion, Crimson Desert is one of the hardest games to judge. There is so much to praise, even if some areas are lackluster. The open world, the fauna, and the sheer depth of the systems are absolutely insane. That sense of discovery is brilliant, it’s so non-stop that it feels overwhelming at times, but it’s an excellent experience that's hard to put down.

You can tell that the areas that is game feels poor, (story, characters and many quests) come from the transition from an MMO project to a single-player, but it’s still amazing what they’ve accomplished. Their post-launch attitude has been great too, quickly addressing community feedback and adding QoL features to fix some of their weirder design choices.

These mindless internet hype and hate trains are just getting exhausting at this point!

Sounds like an 'early access' release to me... PSN (or however it's branded) doesn't seem to have an equivalent, which is a bit of a shame, but with all these patches, sounds like early adopters are paying full price to make the game better for late adopters - as opposed to paying less.

@Flaming_Kaiser still a point though. Look at starfield. That's rated higher than CD and there isn't a single thing it does better and it's absolutely littered with bugs. This is one of the most complete and fun $70 games I've played this generation.

I'm sorry but how are we accepting this line of questioning? It is embarrassing. If Ubisoft, EA or Sony did this.. the same ***** would be flaming them for not waiting. Even CDPR rightly got screwed for the launch of CP2077.

Pearl Abyss clearly released it earlier for the end of quarter bump and should be derided for launching a game so sloppily.

I have said it for a long time but the absolute lack of push back/criticism East Asian devs get for shoddy releases is shocking.

How exactly can you even accuse them of intentionally sabotaging their own launch... You could say the updates started with reviewers, that's it. Theres no precedent that updates would be good PR, that's a gamble on a gamble, actually crazy to even suggest.
Also, I was there day 1, had a reset save bug. Cost me 2 minutes. The majority of patches are putting in COMMUNITY REQUESTS. It wasn't MISSING a chest, they didn't want you to have one. It wasn't missing button remaps, they thought they had the perfect control system. I've seen Koreans play starcraft, I'm not telling THEM they don't know controls. Plus it wasn't hard to learn the controls at all, a mix of Elden ring and Soulcalibur, no prob.

Most importantly, this Definitely makes Unreal 5 look bad. Without question. A 1st release on a new engine from a no name dev and version 1.0 can run to the end of the game in 1440p, 120fps with raytracing and no upscaling on a 3 year old 4080 and be the best looking game available? I don't think devs look bad. I don't think this makes unity look bad. Or Cryengine. But at this, I would love to see Epic get a class action lawsuit from these devs that chose them and all the consumers that got sold into the idea of throwing new hardware to brute force their immersion breaking software. BY FAR this makes Unreal 5 looks bad

No this game wasn't released incomplete and these patches only improve quality of life in the game. No need to re-visit the review unless you want to admit you made a mistake and got it wrong. Awarding starfield a higher score than CD was just silly. Pearl abyss are one of my more respected devs next to arrowhead and embark studios in the way they respond to the gamers input..maybe PS should do the same and listen to us for once.

Honestly, I haven’t played it so I’m not sure. But, I’m positive buyers of the game mostly appreciate them improving Crimson Desert’s quality. It seems like the studio is really looking at, absorbing and then utilizing fan/gamer feedback. I’m sure some of these fixes were already in the works though. I’m not a game developer so I don’t know how long it actually takes to even implement the small of changes.

Long winded but yes: it’s great to see a studio pride itself in a game and try to make it even better for gamers. Some developers don’t really go back to their games once it’s released nowadays.

Crimson Desert is on my wish list. It feels like a perfect “I’m staying in the air conditioned room and I refuse to leave it” type of summer game

It wasn't unfinished on release at all, it had a few small bugs (like every game) and fiddly controls (that I didn't personally have an issue with, you adjust). Pearl Abyss have simply squashed bugs and altered quality of life stuff by listening to their customers. A LOT of AAA Devs could learn a thing or two. There's a massive agenda against this game for some reason, much like there was against Black Myth: Wulong and Stellar Blade, probably because Eastern Devs are knocking it out of the park while the west releases crap like Star field, Veilguard, Concord and Highguard.

@Northern_munkey You are forgetting Imsomniac who are currently keeping the output of PlayStation afloat 😅 (I wanted to say Bungie but they did the art thing but man the shooting 🤤)

@Sanquine I know you are an insomniac fan but I'm not a huge fan to be honest. They produce Stirling games but there's a bit too much wokeness for me personally. Please note other readers I said personally as in you don't have to agree or tell me you disagree.

I was so hyped for this, but something was clearly wrong when they didn't show console gameplay. I will experience it somewhere down the line though. I'm impressed with the devs and the fixes they do. But it needs more fundamental fixing for me. Happy for everyone else who is playing and enjoying it though!

In recent years, games have almost never been “complete” at launch, and many titles still suffer from the same issues months or even years later — crashes, broken quests, and unfinished content.
That’s why I’m genuinely impressed by how actively they’ve been improving this game after release. They listen to players, respond quickly, and fix or refine things at an impressive pace.
It finally feels like we’re being taken seriously.

@ShogunRok You can do articles saying how the game is much better than it's original release, but redoing the review for a game that in many ways is broken and unfinished, is a very bad call imo.

Great that the developer is pumping out fixes and updates quickly, but that doesn't justify that they purposely released this despite knowing the issues already.

You didn't go back and re-review Cyberpunk (PS5 version doesn't count), why should this be any different.

So many people talking out their ass, as per usual for Push. Most of these updates are based off of community feedback and requests. Keep huffing those push square echo chamber fumes, boys. It’s genuinely become so sad.

Perfect timing for this poll, because I've been thinking about this since Crimson Desert came out. Everyone keeps saying 'good job to the dev team for being responsive' and I'm like... no. That's not the point. The point is that the game shipped unfinished. if we continue doing this we're gonna normalize it.

yeah it's got it's issues but tbh what game doesn't. All games get updates sometimes but I'm happy with CD and the support it's getting, maybe it was a rushed release but the DEVS are responsive and it hasn't hurt my game play. so far 50+ hours in and loving it ... be interesting to see what comes in the future

It is depressing but gamers get exactly what they deserve with all the half baked broken launches that have happened in the last few years.

You absolutely should not be applauding a developer who launched garbage and then patched it at a later date. Rather, that’s the bare minimum you should expect from them as an apology.

All of those issues should’ve been fixed before launch, and I am appalled that Push Square would even consider re-reviewing the game, as that simply encourages more developers to rush out broken trash.

As I’ve said before, they take the money off your credit card on launch day, not when the game is finally fixed. If they were taking the payment a few months later when it was fully patched, then I wouldn’t have an issue.

Definitely one of my favorite new games of 2026 so far, up there with Romeo is a Dead Man.

No Man's Desert.

Great to hear they are committed to fixing it up and responding to player feedback for features etc. too.

@Andy22385 I'm probably not the person to talk i find the Bethesda games a bit dissapointing and after Skyrim on PS3 I was done with them. It is kinda special that with all their games they somehow can't fix them on multiple generations and need the community to clean up their mess.

@roguepanda88 That is true it's so nice of them to fix something they sold in a broken state.

The game was in a no way a Cyberpunk or No Man's Sky level disaster. Listening to feedback and patching is great and they obviously have the manpower to patch quickly.

The game was clearly unfinished. Yes, it's nice that it's being improved a lot with updates, but I feel bad for the people who spent full price on the game, only to be effective beta testers. This is not something the developer/publisher should be praised for. I'll get the game when it's on sale and in much better shape.

Transparency in ways yes, the game being what it was of state/design, hard to say there really. It's still a heavily updated game. But it's foundation is broad so to me it's more the case there then the updates themselves.

It's core has more then the more dull other 3rd parties that's for sure.

I'm not even buying 1st party Xbox/PS IPs either really.

The game remains incomplete. Anyone who doesn’t agree, please show me a video of your character summoning and using a hot air balloon, as one example.

In addition to incomplete, it lacks basic 2026 features. I can cynically have the opinion they released a minimum viable product for inventory management, camp management, cooking, and any other aspect of the game which is not combat or exploration. I have a better player experience with inventory management on my Switch 2 playing Zelda than on the bleeding-edge console playing CD.

The game delivers some amazing “Wow” moments. But the basic failures are so many and so frequent that it takes it away. For example, just running on my fully developed camp triggers horrible frame drops, pop-ins, and stutter. And I can cite other examples most of you already know. There’s no point in adding them here.

Pearl Abyss seems to treat an off-line, single player game as a live service game. And this is worrisome.

@Jacko11
Or, they can do the review in June instead, after they are done.

@gamer153 no, there shouldn't be a re-review at all.

@ShogunRok No reason to, the game hasn’t remotely nor fundamentally changed, and it’s incredibly disingenuous to give the implication that anything has just to try and save face. Just do better next time.

• I can’t believe I have to type this out, but I’m not “trolling or baiting” jfc, the way this site is censoring people for giving their valid opinions is both terrifying and appalling, not to mention the across the board inconsistency, which comes off as targeted attacks vs actual concern. Genuinely can’t believe this is allowed.